Celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 17:43 03 Jan 2021 GMT
Busy Philipps has revealed that her eldest child is gay and is using they/them pronouns.
The 41-year-old actress made the announcement on the New Year's Eve episode of her podcast, Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best.
The Dawson's Creek star revealed that her 12-year-old child, Birdie, had given their mom permission to speak about their sexuality and identity on the show.
"For those of you who are my friends listening at home, this is the first you're hearing that Birdie is gay and out," the actress told her listeners.
"Birdie told us at 10 years old and we immediately [...] I mean, obviously, I knew that Birdie knew."
Philipps then revealed that she has been struggling to use the pronouns her child has requested: "I've been doing a bad job with the pronouns, because Birdie said that they would like the pronouns to be they/them and I haven't been doing it."
"I have this public persona and I want Birdie to be in control of their own narrative and not have to answer to anybody outside of our friends and family if they don't want to.
"Bird was like, 'I don't give a f**k. You can talk about that I'm gay and out; you can talk about my pronouns. That would be cool with me. That's great.' It's been wild."
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"I f**k up sometimes," Busy once again said of her child's chosen pronouns, "but I'm trying my best."
Birdie is Philipps' eldest child with husband Marc Silverstein. The couple also have a seven-year-old daughter, Cricket.
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The Freaks and Geeks star also opened up about a heartwarming conversation she had with her child's about life.
An emotion Philipps then shared the important advice she gave Birdie: "I was like, 'Are you all right? Do you want to talk about anything?’ And Birdie said, 'It's just, I feel like I'm alive but I'm not really living, you know? And I just want the living part to start.' I got really emotional.
Philipps added: "I said, 'Well, first off, welcome to being my daughter.'
"But I want to say this to you, because I wish someone said it to me. This is living, you can't wait for it to start. You can't think, if only I can get to X, I can start living."
Getting choked up, Phillips continued: "This year, having all this s**t happen and being forced to stop and just sit with what my life is, I realize that I did waste so much time fantasizing about a thing, so many things that I thought were gonna make me feel a different way.
"And the way that I feel, that's just me and I need to, I did, I had to face it and figure out how to sit in it."
The doting mom also told Birdie: "You get to build your life however the f**k you want to, and it doesn't have to look like anything you've ever seen or anything that's ever been modeled for you because maybe it doesn't exist."
"You get to choose what will make you feel fulfilled and happy.
"It doesn't have to be any of these constructs that we've all been fed our whole lives. This is a different world that you get to f**king build. Anyway, it was pretty intense. I love that kid and this has been a f**king wild year."
